Sindh members of Supreme Judicial Council told of meeting

Push amongst lawyers to fill the vacant seats in the Sindh High Court.

KARACHI: Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has called a meeting of the Supreme Judicial Commission on December 4. The four members from Sindh have been informed about the meeting.

A source explained that this meeting is highly important for Sindh because the agenda includes a decision regarding the ad-hoc judges on the SHC who are performing judicial duties. The number of said judges is nine and they are working under a stay order of the Supreme Court.

The Sindh members in the SJC are Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, senior judge Justice Mushir Alam, provincial law minister Ayaz Sumro and lawyers representative Lal Yaseen Babar. The SHC has 40 openings for judges, 18 of which are permanent and nine, working under a stay order, are ad-hoc. Due to the rising number of cases, the empty seats in the SHC are cause of much consternation amongst lawyers and others. There is also a growing push in the country for a final decision on judges working under the stay order.

Supreme Court Bar Association president elect Asma Jahanghir has also raised this issue many times. SHC Bar president Rasheed A Razvi has also asked for the immediate appointment of judges for the empty slots. The Sindh High Court Bar has even suggested that the judges up for appointment whose character and credibility has been proven to be above par should be made permanent.

A source has also said that even though the written agenda does not have any Supreme Court appointment on it, there could be a discussion regarding the next appointee from Sindh to the Supreme Court after the retirement of Justice Rehmat Hussain Jafferi.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2010.